A Crawfordsville woman will be arraigned Friday on neglect charges in connection to the abuse of her then-infant daughter in 2019.
Megan L. Marshall, 24, and Dylan T. Myers, 28, who was Marshall’s boyfriend, were arrested by Crawfordsville police Feb. 22 on felony warrants in the case.
Paramedics responded to the couple’s Shady Knoll apartment in August 2019 for a three-month-old girl in respiratory distress and suffering from seizures, according to charging documents filed Feb. 19 in Montgomery Circuit Court.
The child’s babysitter told investigators she heard the infant make a sound “like a dog getting run over” after Myers returned from putting her to bed, court documents said.
Myers went to get the child and handed her to the babysitter, who told police the girl had been fine throughout the day.
Marshall came home around that time to find her daughter limp and unresponsive and called for an ambulance, investigators said.
Doctors determined the baby suffered multiple life-threatening rib fractures, hematomas, retinal hemorrhages and respiratory failure. She had a lengthy stay at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
Myers, who is not the girl’s father, told police the child had rolled off the couch and struck her head on a potty chair a few days earlier. He denied causing the injuries.
Doctors said the “catastrophic nature of the injuries was such that the manifestation of the injuries would almost be immediately discernible to the child,” court documents said.
Myers acknowledged he was serving probation after being convicted of neglect of a dependent in Boone County. Marshall told police she was aware of the conviction and that Myers had dropped the girl on the bed or couch multiple times.
Myers was arraigned Feb. 24 in Montgomery Circuit Court on charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury, aggravated battery inflicting injury that causes serious permanent disfigurement and battery with serious bodily injury to a person under 14.
Marshall faces charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury and resulting in serious injury. Her initial hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in Circuit Court.
They were both released from the Montgomery County Jail on bond.
